DHS Shark Week is Fintastic!

SHARK!!!– Dominican students Briaunna Galey, senior, and Em Fluellen, junior, slice open a shark to experience first-hand what they have been learning all year in their Biology II class. In April, Mrs. Janine Koenig’s (’82) and Mrs. Madelyn Maldonado’s (’09) Biology II lessons transformed their students into shark dissectors.

According to Mrs. Koenig, the best way to learn all the adaptations of a perfect predator is to feel, see and smell all of it. “Dissecting is one of the best ways to bring a textbook lesson to life,” she said.

Since 2010, Biology II students have cut, examined and studied sharks each year. From this lesson, students “improve dissecting skills and realize how vertebrates without a boney skeleton work,” said Mrs. Koenig.

Two types of dissections include virtual and actual. At DHS, Biology II students have virtually dissected frogs, and students have watched videos of these procedures as well.

The virtual exercises are beneficial but “are not a replacement for actually doing the dissection,” said Mrs. Koenig. Biology II does the actual shark dissection because “it involves more senses therefore helping the students better remember the dissection and information,” she added.

“The shark dissection is by far my favorite because sharks are serious predators,” said senior Grace Brown. “It is really cool to see the inside of them and how they work.”